From the Director. Welcome Back. A newsletter for Principals and Staff of Primary and Secondary Schools in the Diocese of Sale.

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1 Volume 2, Issue 1 January 2009 A newsletter for Principals and Staff of Primary and Secondary Schools in the Diocese of Sale Welcome Back Special points of interest: A New Bishop Catholic Education Week 2009 A New Look Catholic Education Office Team New Principals Regionalisation of Catholic Education Office Services Religious Education Funding Issues New Developments Teaching and Learning Infrastructure Welcome back to what promises, once again, to be an extraordinarily busy year. While busy, the year also holds much promise of excitement and achievement. It is an extraordinary week, weather wise, to be returning to the grindstone. The long period of 40 degree days that we are expecting will certainly be a tester. You will be well and truly aware that 2009 has been declared to be the year of St Paul. It is an opportunity for all of us to be looking to Paul as an inspiration. He was the missionary par excellence and his is a mission in which we still share today. Our schools exist to bring news of the Kingdom of God to as many Unfortunately, we still have no news of when a new Bishop might be appointed to our diocese. While we certainly enjoy working with our Diocesan Administrator, Father Peter Slater, I am aware of the extraordinary hard work that is required of him in his dual role. I can only admire that work and the way Father Peter goes about it. I would hope that Rome, in its wisdom, might see fit to make an appointment sooner rather than later. Patience is required of us all. as we are able to touch. I know that all our schools, both primary and secondary, are places that strive to be opportunities for children and families to be reached by that Kingdom. They are always searching for new and better ways to be places of peace, joy, hope, justice and love. It is worth remembering that it is just on 12 months since Kevin Rudd apologised to Australia s Indigenous people on behalf of us all. That day was an emotional experience for all of us. It makes one wonder what has changed, though, since then. Our reconciliation with our indigenous brothers and sisters is not something that can be fixed with one blow. It needs our In response to feedback from Principals, our diocese will be celebrating Catholic Education Week in May this year. For many of our schools, this coincides more closely with the main student enrolment period and allows schools more time to plan celebratory activities outside the season of Lent. Nominations for our 2009 Living Witnesses Awards (which will be presented at the Leadership Dinner during Catholic Education constant attention and commitment. I believe it is something to which we, as Catholics, should all be committed and continue to work. A New Bishop Catholic Education Week 2009 Week) are now open. Information sheets and nomination forms have been posted to School Administration Officers today. I encourage you to consider nominating a staff member or student who has made an outstanding contribution to Catholic Education in the diocese. Nominations close Friday 3 April.

2 Page 2 A New Look Catholic Education Office Team Principals will be aware of a number of new appointments made to the CEO staff for 2009, replacing some great wisdom and experience that has left us in recent months. Three Assistant Directors are now in place. The title of Assistant Director is new. Previously we have had Heads of Staff Groups which have been, essentially, an inhouse arrangement. The positions of Assistant Director are significant. They are far more than mere organisers of staff within this Office. Indeed, they take significant leadership roles in their respective areas of responsibility throughout Catholic education in the diocese. I know you will welcome them and enjoy working with them in this capacity. I am delighted to welcome Ms Lorraine Barlow to the position of Assistant Director School Services. Lorraine will join Ms Tilly Hutton, Assistant Director Finance and Administrative Services and Sr Rose Duffy, Assistant Director Religious Education in forming the Executive team of the Office. We also welcome Mrs Mary Howlett, Mr Paul Lomas and Ms Rosemary Copeland to the role of Education Consultant. Paul will be working with Principals and school communities in the central area of the diocese, Mary will be working in the eastern region and Rosemary with the seven Secondary Colleges. Of course, Vincent Carr will continue his great work with school communities in the west. Mr Grant Harris has been appointed as ICT Manager within the Office. At this stage, Grant s role is primarily within the Office. His function is to ensure that ICT within the Catholic Education Office itself is working to an optimum level (given budget constraints). Mr Phil Rebbechi has returned to the Office in the Learning Pathways Team. Phil is known to many already and we look forward to the contribution he will make to the enhancement of ICT as a learning mechanism throughout the primary schools of the diocese. New Principals Our group of Principals has remained quite stable over this new year. I am delighted to welcome back to the principalship Mr John Williams, who will be at Trinity Primary school Narre Warren South for and Kevin Greenwood who will be Acting Principal at St Mary s Bairnsdale. I welcome Mr Mark Linden who will be Acting Principal at St Therese s Cranbourne. None of these people is new to the diocese but I am sure that they will make a significant contribution in their new roles.

3 Volume 2, Issue 1 Page 3 Regionalisation of Catholic Education Office Services As a result of a number of suggestions from Principals during 2008, we are rearranging the manner in which services are offered to schools in Hopefully this will lead to a greater consistency of relationship that CEO staff have with schools and a greater co-ordination of the work of the Office in providing service. Secondary schools will continue to be served by Ms Rosemary Copeland as Education Consultant but she will be joined by a team of Mr Sam Franzi and Mrs Mary Mutsaers. In the secondary arena, this does not look much different from past practice. However, that will be reflected within the primary sector as well from now on. Each of the regions, western, central and Religious Education eastern, will be served by one group of people who will meet on a regular basis within the Office to ensure that a co-ordinated approach is being exercised at all times. I look forward to this new arrangement and am confident that we will be able to serve schools, perhaps even better, than we have been able to do in the past. It is intended that this new arrangement will simplify the accountabilities that our system carries under various compliance regimes, State and Federal. As Director, I need to attest to the fact that our schools are compliant on a wide range of issues. The involvement of a range of staff, working in conjunction with each other, will simplify this matter. I look forward to Principals (and others) providing feedback on this new arrangement as the year progresses. The whole compliance regime we are presently facing is something that does not sit particularly comfortably within our culture. Having said that, it is now a fact of life but one from which we should not resile. I believe that the 40 schools that we have in our diocese are operating at a high level and will generally have no trouble in demonstrating compliance. Indeed, I believe that we should all be proud of the schools we are and should show no fear at all in demonstrating our confidence to Government authorities. The Enhancing Catholic School Identity Project will continue into next year. A large number of schools in our diocese have recently taken part in the second major trial. As I write, four members of the Religious Education team from the Office are in Leuven learning to make maximum use of the data that are flowing from these surveys. I am confident that schools will be able to make great use of what comes from this, particularly in the context of the Catholic School Renewal program. Parish Priests, too, are most interested in what comes forward and we will be working closely with them, as we will with school communities, to ensure that the data are used to maximum effect. The Family Life program will continue in primary schools during It will be coordinated by Mrs Robyn Lewry who is presently looking for new presenters to round out the team. I would appreciate Principals encouraging appropriate staff who may be interested to respond to Robyn s request for additional support. This is obviously an important area of social and emotional development for primary children in our schools. In the secondary area we have arranged with Fr Bernard Teo, a Redemptorist priest from the Yarra Theological Union, to conduct a comprehensive series of workshops with secondary teachers and, eventually, with primary personnel as well. These workshops are intended to provide teachers with the means to work with young people in the area of ethics and morality. While, quite clearly, much of this will impact on the area of sexuality and Family Life Education, morality and ethics obviously stretch far more widely. This is a broader approach and we look forward to its successful implementation.

4 Page 4 Funding Issues 2009 will continue to be a challenge for us financially. We are aware that we are grossly underfunded by the Victorian Government and there will be a continuing campaign, particularly leading up to budget times and to forthcoming elections to seek justice in that funding. We look forward to working with the Victorian Catholic Schools Parent Body (VCSPB) and Principals Associations to keep political pressure where it may be of best use. Particular attention during the year, will be given to seeking an indexed 25% of the Average Government School Recurrent Cost (AGSRC) and to increasing the funding available to support students with special learning needs. We also have real concern about the Federal Government s expressed intention to re-visit the funding formula. At present this is based on an SES model but the Government has flagged its intention to explore other means. We have very little idea of the implications of this at this moment but we are aware of the fact that there is a very powerful public education lobby that would like to see funding to Catholic and other independent schools greatly curtailed. This will require a great deal of attention as the year develops. Indeed, just today (Wed 28 Jan) the AEU has released a statement which says, in part:...a new poll released today shows almost two thirds of people believe the Rudd Government is not investing enough in public schools. AEU Federal President, Angelo Gavrielatos said that only 15 per cent of people surveyed said the Government was spending enough on public schools compared to 65 per cent who said it wasn t spending enough. The release of the results of the nationwide poll of 1000 people, conducted from January 8-12, comes as the AEU begins a new round of television advertising across the country calling for more funding for public schools. What the AEU and its supporters continually fail to tell us is that the bulk of funding for Government schools comes from State Governments, not the Commonwealth Government and that Government schools are far more generously funded from the combined public purse that are Catholic schools. No doubt, school communities will be asked to participate in these campaigns as they arise. They do matter. Indeed, the very future of our system relies on appropriate Government funding. We cannot afford to go backwards in this matter. New Developments At present, St Francis Xavier College (Beaconsfield / Berwick) and St Peter s College (Cranbourne) are seeking new land to develop new campuses for themselves. It would appear that the possibility of purchase of these blocks of land is growing closer, although there is still much work to be done. The new primary school at Officer is well down the planning track. It is intended to open that school in We will be advertising for and appointing a principal for the school during the middle part of 2009.

5 Volume 2, Issue 1 Page 5 Teaching and Learning VCE Results Congratulations to Secondary Principals and their staff on the 2008 VCE results. Success should not just be measured by VCE scores of course, but in schools across the Diocese, our students have performed well, such that median scores have either been maintained or improved. Students have also experienced widespread success in VCAL and VET courses, and it is terrific to see the diversity of courses available to our students as they seek success in their education as preparation for the futures. All staff are to be congratulated on the work they do in teaching, nurturing and encouraging our young people to do their best. Developments At the end of last year a Commonwealth Government Bill was passed to establish the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). This is potentially a critical body for the work we do. Its very title tells us much of its role. One of its major functions is the establishment of a National Curriculum. At this stage we have very little information on what that may mean. A series of workshops and consultations is being conducted around the country and we urge as much participation from our teachers as we are able. There is some concern that the National Catholic Education Commission has signed off on a National curriculum with very little knowledge of what that means. In many ways it is a bit of a blank cheque. That is a matter that we will continue to monitor very carefully. In the areas of literacy and numeracy, I am pleased to advise that this diocese, along with the other Victorian dioceses, Catholic Education in Western Australia and ACU, have obtained some significant funding to develop pilot strategies in literacy (Oral Language) and numeracy education (EMU Extending Mathematical Understanding). Obtaining this funding is a great feather in our collective caps. The programs are being managed from our point of view by Ms Liz McQuade-Jones and I am sure there will be much valuable information flowing from that. One of the significant successes that we had during 2008 was the introduction of the Intel Training Program. Quite a number of staff from primary and secondary schools participated in this with great results showing at school level. It is intended to have one of our staff members (Mr Phil Rebbechi) trained as a master trainer in the Intel program during the early part of Phil will then be in a position to offer that training within our diocese during this and future years.

6 Page 6 Infrastructure Catholic Network Australia is continuing in the planning stages. This will hopefully be implemented during 2009 and provide much greater access to the digital world than most of our schools presently enjoy. It is pleasing that costs will be minimised to individual schools as they will be paid for by the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria. The existence of CNA will provide great learning opportunities for all of us and may even enhance the possibilities of video conferencing across and outside the diocese. It is important, not only to have the infrastructure but then to know how to use it. During 2009 the Catholic Education Office will be redeveloping our public webpage. As with every school, web presence is critical. I believe that we need to carry a significant web presence on behalf of schools in such a way that Catholic education in each of our communities can be promoted. We will be looking to maximise that opportunity. Many of you will also have noticed that CEVN-ISS has been revamped. This will continue to grow and will become a major means of communication between this Office and schools. It is here, for example, that you can expect to find much of the documentation that exists presently in either hard copy form or on our own CEO Sale website. This will be a gradual process but one to which I greatly look forward. Conclusion As I said at the outset, this promises to be a busy and challenging year. It is one to which I look forward. I am delighted with the team we have assembled here at the Catholic Education Office and I am equally delighted with the quality of education happening in our schools across the diocese. I look forward to working with each and every one of you and with your Parish Priests / Canonical Administrators to make Catholic Education in this diocese a shining light. Catholic Education Office Diocese of Sale PO Box 322, WARRAGUL VIC 3820 Phone (03) Fax ( director@ceo.sale.catholic.edu.au